Sheena RobinsonA Chattanooga woman in custody almost one month after a child was taken to a local hospital with extensive bruising on his body.
The boy's mother told police he had been staying with 36-year-old Sheena Robinson from July 15-18.
She said Robinson had called her on July 17 and told her a dresser had fallen on the child but that he was OK and not injured, according to Hamilton County court records.
When the mother picked her son up after work on July 18 around 2:30 a.m., she noticed he was "walking funny," the records state. She gave him a bath once they got home and noticed swelling and irritation to his genitalia and bruises on his thighs, forearms, neck and chest.
That's when she took the boy, whose age was not listed in the records, to the hospital where Chattanooga police were called.
Some time later, the mother took her son to the Family Justice Center for a forensic interview and a follow-up medical exam, court records state.
During the interview, the child told case workers that Robinson had "choked him and 'whooped' him with a belt."
Investigators noted all of the same injuries that his mother reported in addition to some scratches on face and neck, court records show.
Child Protective Services then conducted an in-home visit with Robinson and stated that the dresser Robinson claimed to have fallen on the boy "could not in fact have caused the injuries noted," court records state.
Investigators tried to contact Robinson about 12-15 times, according to court records, but she wouldn't answer her phone. Warrants were then obtained for her arrest, and Hamilton County sheriff's deputies arrested her at her home on Monday.
She was booked into the Hamilton County Jail where she has been charged with aggravated child abuse. She is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 26.
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